Tag Archives: Joemar San Pedro

I’m currently reading a very interesting book entitled “The Millionaire’s Next Door”. I was fascinated with the title that I had to find a way to have a copy of this. After reading a few chapters, my view of the concept of wealth dramatically changed. I thought I’m wealthy when I have millions in my bank account; or when I live in a very expensive house in an upscale neighborhood within the city, or drive the latest brand of BMW or wears a P200, 000.00 worth of watch. To my dismay, this is not so. In the book, the authors Stanley and Vanko made a study of who really the real millionaires.

During their research, they interviews thousands of millionaires around the United States. After many months of visiting these so-called millionaires next door, they discovered that the real millionaires are not really what we perceive to be. Eighty percent (80%) of the real millionaires don’t live in a high class subdivision. They don’t wear branded apparels and accessories. They don’t buy the latest I-phone model or travel in a presidential suites. Some of them have been driving a car made ten years ago. The real millionaires in America are not the Hollywood personalities or the CEOs of a large and successful companies.

Who is the Millionaire Next Door?

Maybe the neighbor you fail to greet everyday is a millionaire or that man wearing an old shirt and a pair of jeans or it could be the person you meet daily. The real millionaires in the United State are ordinary people who live an ordinary life. Some of them are farmers, firemen, businessmen, and employees. They have accumulated so much wealth that even if they don’t work for the rest of their lives they will survive. And this is the meaning of wealth I want you to instill in your mind.

Wealth is measured by how many years you will live if income ceases coming in. Will you survive for the 20 to 30 years after you retire with the lifestyle you always wanted. If a person has monthly lifestyle expense of 30,000 pesos and his investment can sustain him until he died, is he wealthy? Or the other person whose lifestyle costs 200,000 pesos a month but can survive only for five years, is he wealthy?